Tag: Jason Li

Feature

History Bowl Regional Championship

Words: Vaishnavi Mahalingam

On Saturday, March 12, 36 teams participated in the History Bowl Capital Region Championship. At the end of the tournament, five of Centennial’s teams qualified for the National Championship, which will take place in Virginia on April 23.

Senior Aniruddha Rao won a silver medal in honor of being the second best player in the Varsity Division of the History Bee; sophomore William He won the Bronze medal for the Junior Varsity Division.

Centennial’s A Team, which includes senior captain Gary Tse, junior Jason Li, senior Kevin Costello, and junior Siri Neerchal, came in second place overall. The Centennial B Team (comprised of senior Aniruddha Rao, junior Rohan Laljani, senior Pranav Ganapathy, and junior Aidan Newell) and C Team (including juniors Christopher Cha, Sahil Saini, Mohammed Billah, Richard Cui, and Yashas Lokesh) both triumphed for several rounds in the playoffs.

For more breaking news and photos, follow The Wingspan on Instagram and Twitter @CHSWingspan.

Feature, News

It’s Academic

Words: Vaishnavi Mahalingam

On Sunday, February 14, tryouts for the Maryland Quiz Bowl All-Stars were held in preparation for the National All-Star Academic Tournament, which will take place at the University of Kentucky in mid-June.

Two Centennial students, juniors Siri Neerchal and Jason Li, were selected to be part of the five-member team that will be competing in the tournament. The team will also consist of junior Logan Feingold from Quince Orchard High School, senior Alex Echikson from Richard Montgomery High School, and senior Ho-Jung Yang from Walter Johnson High School.

On Saturday, February 20, twelve of the best Quiz Bowl teams in the United States were invited to the Battle for Mid-Atlantic Dominance, held in the Charter School of Wilmington in Delaware. Centennial’s It’s Academic sent a team led by seniors Gary Tse and Aniruddha Rao and three sophomores: Steen Alme, Jakob Boeye, and William He.

Centennial’s team participated in 14 matches over 12 hours, and tied for fifth place, defeating teams from Detroit Catholic, Wilmington Charter, Richard Montgomery, Hunter College, and Quince Orchard High Schools. Centennial’s It’s Academic will play against these teams again at the National Championship competition in Dallas, which will take place over Memorial Day weekend.

For more breaking news and photos, follow The Wingspan on Instagram and Twitter @CHSWingspan.

Feature

It’s Academic Victory

Words: Sandy Eichhorn

On Saturday, February 6, Centennial’s It’s Academic TV Team, composed of senior captain Gary Tse, senior Kevin Costello, and junior Siri Neerchal, defeated Hereford and Reservoir High Schools 675 to 385 to 260 respectively. The air date of the competition will most likely be at the end of April. The competition started with 81 teams and has been narrowed down to 9 teams for the semifinals. This will be taped along with the finals on April 30 at WJZ TV studios. It’s Academic is the defending champion of the Baltimore Metro and the TV Superbowl against DC and Virginia.

The It’s Academic Team thanks the Drill Team for going to the competition as well as Assistant Principal Jim Zehe for attending (when you watch the taping, please pay special attention to how he is introduced by Gary). The team was also supported by the  Centennial Lane Elementary It’s Academic Team and the Burleigh Manor It’s Academic team at the taping.

Centennial’s Quiz Bowl Team comprised of seniors Gary Tse, and Kevin Costello, and  juniors Siri Neerchal and Jason Li,  is now ranked 16th in the nation and our school has qualified 3 teams for the premier national championship competition in Dallas, Texas over Memorial Day Weekend. Centennial will host the State Championships for History Bowl on March 12 and a regional Middle School/Elementary competition on Sunday April 10. It’s Academic  has qualified two teams for the National History Bowl competition at the end of April.

Photos Contributed By: It’s Academic
Photos Contributed By: It’s Academic
Photos Contributed By: It’s Academic

For more breaking news and photos, follow The Wingspan on Instagram and Twitter @CHSWingspan.

Feature

It’s Academic at the History Bowl Tournament

Words: Caroline Chu

On Sunday, November 15, Centennial’s It’s Academic team sent seven teams to the History Bowl Tournament. The tournament was held at Saint Anselm College in the DC Metropolitan area. The Centennial A team, comprised of captain Gary Tse, Kevin Costello, Siri Neerchal and Jason Li, came in second place in the Varsity division, losing in the finals to Richard Montgomery High School.

The It’s Academic D team, comprised of captain Jakob Boeye, Steen Aime, Bryce Plunkett, and Balaji Kodali, tied for third place in the JV division. Both teams qualified for the National History tournament and received plaques. Boeye, a member of the It’s Academic D team, received a bronze medal for individual performance in the JV History Bee.

Photo Provided By Eric and Sara Seifter
Photo Provided By Eric and Sara Seifter

For more breaking news and photos, follow The Wingspan on Instagram and Twitter@CHSWingspan.

Feature

It’s Academic- Georgetown University Invitational Tournament

Words: Brianna Belt and Bridget Israel

On Saturday, October 31, Centennial High School sent their four best It’s Academic teams to the Georgetown University Invitational Tournament. Centennial’s A team had two signature victories going 11-1 over Thomas Jefferson A, the highest ranked team in Virginia. Gary Tse, senior captain, put on an amazing performance along with senior Kevin Costello and juniors Siri Neerchal and Jason Li.

Winning this tournament skyrocketed Centennial into the National rankings, and qualified Centennial’s A team for both national tournaments in Dallas and Chicago in May and June. Centennial’s B team also showed out by placing in fourth and beating Thomas Jefferson A in a head to head match. Junior captain Rohan Laljani and sophomore William He led the team and put up career stats for the day, with excellent help from junior Christopher Cha and freshman Steppan Konoplev.

Junior Yashas Lokesh, captain of the C team and junior Mohammed Billah, captan of the D team both had outstanding performances. Centennial High School will be hosting 90 teams from around the country next week on Sunday, November 8 for our annual Quiz bowl Tournament.

News

It’s Academic Tournament

Words: Vaishnavi Mahalingam

On Sunday, October 18, Centennial’s It’s Academic Club sent nine teams to the Blake Academic tournament. The tournament, which took place in Montgomery County, had a total of 30 teams competing. The Centennial A team, comprised of Kevin Costello, Jason Li, Siri Neerchal, and captain Gary Tse, went undefeated in nine games. This is the fourth consecutive year the team has won the tournament. The runner-up was Centennial’s B team, including Christopher Cha, Pranav Ganapathy, Yashas Loves, and captain Aniruddha Rao. The B team had a winning streak until it lost to Centennial’s A team in the finals.

Centennial’s C team, composed of Steen Alme, Jakob Boeye, Rohan Laljani, and captain Sahil Saini made it to round eight in the playoffs. Centennial’s D team, which included William He, Bryce Plunkett, and co-captains Fayyaz Zaidi and Aidan Newell, went undefeated until the quarter finals, and came in 4th place overall.

Last week on Saturday, October 10, the club sent four teams to the University of Maryland tournament. The teams came fifth and sixth place out of 21 competing groups, and were prolific enough to qualify their A and B teams for the PACE national tournament, which will held in Chicago in June. At the tournament, senior Gary Tse, junior Siri Neerchal, sophomores Steen Alme, Jakob Boeye, and Bryce Plunkett, and freshman Steppan Konoplev delivered outstanding performances.

The team’s performance in the tournament next weekend will be shown on TV.

Photo Submitted By Eric Seifter

For more breaking news and photos, follow The Wingspan on Instagram and Twitter @CHSWingspan.